1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a collision mitigation apparatus for vehicles, which is able to mitigate damage caused to a vehicle equipped with the apparatus when the vehicle is involved in a collision.
2. Related Art
Such a collision mitigation apparatus as set forth above uses a known technique for mitigating damage. As an example of such a technique, a patent document JP-A-2010-003002 discloses that the position of the vehicle equipped with a collision mitigation apparatus (own vehicle) is used as a basis when the own vehicle collides with an object that has been predicted to collide with. Specifically, in the technique disclosed in this patent document, the timing of starting control for mitigating damage (activation timing) is changed in accordance with the position of the own vehicle in colliding with the object.
However, in the collision mitigation apparatus as set forth above, the activation timing is uniformly set, irrespective of the type of an object that the own vehicle may collide with. For example, when the own vehicle travels along a guardrail, the control for mitigating damage is mostly unnecessary, but this unnecessary control is performed due to the uniform setting. As another example, when the object is a pedestrian, it is necessary to perform the control for mitigating damage at an earlier stage, but this necessary control is delayed due to the uniform setting.